Editor of the Texas Journal

A group of Texans, including two state representatives and a former state senator, are striking back against the 28 cities that have filed meritless lawsuits against the firearms industry State Reps. Suzanna Hupp and Rick Green, and former Sen. Jerry Patterson have formed the Civil Liberties Defense Foundation to take legal action against the cities. They may be joined by other lawmakers, gun dealers and private individuals who realize the cities' lawsuits are really an attempt to impose restrictions that would not survive constitutional challenge if offered as legislation.

The cities, and the Federal government which is threatening its own lawsuit, have failed to persuade Congress to pass unconstitutional laws totally depriving Americans of their right to possess guns. The lawsuits are an attempt to achieve the same objective by circumventing the legislative process and using the courts to destroy the firearms industry.

The Texas legislators plan to charge the cities with conspiring to use the courts to impose gun control and violate the constitutional rights of their constituents. They note that the mere threat of adverse judgements has already had an effect on the industry as Colt manufacturing is halting sales of handguns to the public. Colt is in the process of acquiring another gun maker whose product will also be unavailable to the public once the acquisition is completed.

The cities seek restrictions on handgun sales that will limit the rights of Texans to engage in interstate commerce, violating the principle that states and their citizens not be harmed by laws in other states where they are not represented. The cities claim to have suffered financial harm because of the gun manufacturers business practices. But the manufacturers do nothing more than engage in lawful trade. The suits allege no violation of current statutes regulating the firearms industry which reveals the lack of merit in the suits.

Whatever harm the cities are suffering is done by individuals over whom the manufacturer has no control. It's worth noting that many of those per-sons are able to do harm because of lenient penal policies that allowed them to skate on previous offenses or serve light jail terms. Putting bad guys in jail will do more to reduce cost of crime than phoney legal claims against gun manufacturers.

But even that is conceding too much. The supposed harm to the cities is a pretext. As noted, the real motive is to make gun ownership in America impossible by destroying the industry that supplies them. The litigation being planned by these legislators can expose this deception.